Pages

Tuesday, 17 April 2012

War Horse Review

War Horse

-Michael
Morpurgo

Publisher: Egmont
Press

Joey is a warhorse, but he wasn't always. Once, he was a farm horse and a gentle boy named Albert was his master. Then World War I came storming through and everything changed. Albert's father sells Joey to the army where the beautiful, red-bay horse is trained to charge the enemy, drag heavy artillery, and carry wounded soldiers not much older than Albert off of battlefields. Amongst the clamoring of guns and slogging through the cold mud, Joey wonders if the war will ever end. And if it does, will he ever find Albert again?

When
so many teen and children’s books are now aiming towards high word and page
count, it’s refreshing to pick up a book that is less than 200 pages. Even more
surprising is just how moving and emotional War Horse considering it’s slim
size. I’ve previously seen the War Horse stage show and film so I had a good
idea of what to expect but I still ended up in tears on several occasions
during the couple of hours or so it took to read this book.

Joey
starts on the farm, growing up with Albert before ending up sold to the cavalry
at the start of the first world war and follows his trials and tribulations
throughout the war. Joey is a remarkably strong horse who does whatever he is
told to – through charging barbed wire on the front to pulling the massive
machine guns through mud. He is never asked what he wants or given much thanks –
much like many of the human soldiers on both sides during the war. I don’t want
to give too much away, but Michael Morpurgo manages to create vivid characters –
both human and horse with minimal words, allowing their actions to speak for
their themselves.

By
the end of the novel, I felt like a complete emotional wreck and was utterly
grateful to all the animals we have working for us, not just a hundred years
ago, but those we continue to use today. They deserve so much.

See the movie, read the book or watch the stage show - they are all fantastic. I am totally horse-mad naturally, but I dare anyone not to be so very, very thankful to our wonderfully noble, honest and kind four-legged equine companions after experiencing War Horse.